Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams jumps the gun with 'BRITPOP' to dodge Taylor Swift showdown

Robbie Williams sidesteps a chart face-off with Taylor Swift by tossing release schedules to the wind and unleashing 'BRITPOP' three weeks earlier than planned. Announced via Instagram with the urgency of a man finally ready to go, the album lands almost a decade after his last.

Previewed by singles like 'Rocket' featuring Tony Iommi, the record arrives amid Williams's open ambition to dethrone The Beatles’ UK chart record. NME calls it “a laugh” and “bold,” though not quite a classic.

Robbie Williams drafts boyband fight league, settles old Take That vs. East 17 beef

Interpolating a ‘90s rivalry with the bravado of street-ball commentary, Robbie Williams launches a tongue-in-cheek quest to identify the “hardest” boyband members. On Instagram, he pits Take That against East 17, declaring a 3-1 victory for his own crew, barring a bar brawl where “E17 would win... tooted up.”

He expands the concept to a “Ryder Cup of Boy Band Fighting,” forming fictional US and European teams featuring members of Blue, Boyzone, New Kids on the Block, and 98 Degrees, all in service of a mythical film project dubbed Boyband: The Abusical.

Robbie Williams reworks Wet Leg’s ‘Chaise Longue’—adds Take That, Ramones, regrets Swift clash

Robbie Williams slyly retools Wet Leg’s deadpan ‘Chaise Longue’ in the Radio 1 Anthems Live Lounge, tweaking lyrics to reference his Take That origins with “I got a pop star degree.”

He laces the cover with fragments of his own track ‘Candy’ and slips in the Ramones’ infamous “Hey, ho, let’s go.”
Between songs, he laments pushing his ‘BRITPOP’ album to 2026 over Taylor Swift’s release schedule, aiming for a record 16th UK Number One.

Crooning through questions of masculinity, unraveling mental health threads, and occasionally pausing for musings on pet nutrition, Robbie Williams orchestrates a return that’s equal parts confessional monologue and surreal domestic diary.

Robbie Williams trades bombast for British kitsch on his Britpop-nodding tour, now backed by a cat food brand. Felix, the feline sponsor, joins him on a campaign that leans fully into the peculiar glamour-meets-domesticity energy he’s come to represent.

The tour passes through London, Edinburgh and other cities, many already at capacity. In this oddball comeback, Williams reveals more of himself, foot-in-mouth moments and all, and somehow only deepens his appeal.